1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of percussive musical instruments and their accessories, of hardware in or for such instruments and accessories, and of methods relating thereto.
2. Description of Prior Art
Various percussive musical instruments and accessories are commonly employed and played by a single musician (drummer) in the course of a performance. The instruments, namely drums, cymbals, tom-toms, etc., are grouped together, often being supported from a common stand and/or from a main percussive instrument such as a bass drum. The instruments are arranged in a predetermined pattern so that they may be readily played individually or collectively by the single musician.
Because of the size and bulk of the percussive instruments and accessories, they are almost invariably handled, stored and transported individually, rather than in any preestablished set-up or as any group of interconnected instruments. Accordingly, it is common practice to provide drum and accessory mounting hardware to interconnect the instruments and accessories in attachable and detachable relationship. Thus, an ensemble of instruments and accessories may be transported as individual pieces to the location of a given performance, at which location the instruments are interconnected in the desired relative positions and orientations.
Such relative positions and orientations are major factors in a performance. Each musician will carefully arrange his instrumental set-up to ensure that the various instruments are properly positioned and are presented at the desired playing angles. Having completed the performance, the instruments and accessories are disconnected, transported and then re-connected before a subsequent performance.
Insofar as applicants are aware, all prior-art hardware for drums and accessories had one or more of the following (and other) major deficiencies: inability to be set at any desired rotated position about an elongated element; requirement for a grooved or otherwise deformed tube; inability to be re-assembled at predetermined indexed positions at which both the angular relationships and the axial positions are the same as in the previous performance; lack of ruggedness and resistance to shocks, impacts and other large forces; lack of simplicity (with consequent increased manufacturing costs and decreased performance and aesthetic appeal); inability to maintain the locked relationship without wobble; inability to permit one part of one instrument or accessory to mate with a different instrument or accessory in highly modular, interchangeable relationships; and inability to pre or double lock.
The present hardware has none of the above deficiencies. Furthermore, in accordance with important aspects of the present invention, the hardware is built into various percussive musical instruments and accessories, forming rugged connector portions therein. The connections are not only pre-indexed (at any desired position) rotationally and axially, but are so strong that large forces (such as, for example, the weight of a "bouncing" drummer) will not budge them.